Plot to Undermine Montana Elections Thickens

A dirty plot hatched by the local conservatives to deceive voters and with TEA Party Republicans pretending to be Democrats has thickened. A new outbreak of TEA Party conservatives who have filed for office as democrats has just come to light. Stay tuned, there are more to come.

Already, an infestation was discovered in Gallatin County: a bunch of local Tea Partiers filed paperwork to run as Democrats for local legislative races all from the same address. But the blight is worse than previously thought. Another fake Democratic candidate has now come to light.

Republicans have filed a “one-world government” conspiracy theorist named Michael Comstock for state senate district 34 in Gallatin County.

Comstock actually won a Republican primary in 2010, in another legislative district, but lost the general. He is a big name in Gallatin County Republican Party (his Republican campaign was featured on the Gallatin County GOP website (here’s a screenshot for when they take it down).

Comstock has tried to do this before, but his scheme was exposed. This time, he appears to believe that by peppering his website with the word “democrat” that we won’t know the difference.

I’m told that there are more fake candidates out there who have filed as democrats — readers like you are the most likely people to know who they are–email the tip line at mntnacowgirl@gmail.com and help spread the word.

No, the system depends somewhat on honesty. Otherwise you’d have Derek Skees /Roger Koopman purity testing everyone in sight. When you have blatant deception like this, you really harm the public trust.

You have to pay to use certain party tools, like lists of previous voters and such. Sure, they have the same thing for free from the state, but both parties do a much better job of keeping the details.

I suppose if either party thought a candidate was too extreme they could just block access to that.

My guess is, their intention is to mount just enough of a primary fight to drain the finances of the legitimate candidates in order to weaken the Democrats in the general elections. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to actually win a primary, but I doubt they have any real expectation of that happening. Here’s hoping the whole thing backfires, and the legit candidates raise so much money from the publicity that they can mount serious campaigns in otherwise ‘safe’ Republican districts.

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